44 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LE TEAR saiove 
TO THE SAME. 
SELBORNE, March 30th, 1768. 
DEAR SIR,—Some intelligent country people have a notion that 
we have, in these parts, a species of the genus mustelinum, besides 
the weasel, stoat, ferret, and polecat; a little reddish beast, not 
much bigger than a field-mouse, but much longer, which they call a 
cane. This piece of intelligence can be little depended on; but 
farther inquiry may be made.* 
A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks in 
one nest. A booby ofa carter, finding them before they were able 
WEASEL, 
to fly, threw them down and destroyed them, to the regret of the 
owner, who would have been glad to have preserved such a curiosity 
* Such is the case at the present time. Most gamekeepers insist that there is another 
beast different from the weasel or stoat: young and female weasels appear very small 
when running, and in reality look scarcely bigger than a large mouse, the form being a 
little more lengthened. These do not agree with the weasels and stoats taken in traps, 
&c., and hence the delusion is kept up. 
Mitford has the following note in his edition. ‘‘ This I believe to be a pretty general 
error among the county-people, also in other counties. This imaginary animal in Suffolk 
is called the ‘ mouse-kunt,’ from its being supposed to live on mice. To discover the truth 
of this report, I managed to have several of these animals brought to me; all of which I 
find to be the common weasel. The error I conceive partly to have arisen from this 
animal, like most others, appearing less than its real size, when running or attempting to 
escape, a circumstance well known to the hunters of India, with respect to larger animals, 
as the tiger,” &c. 
